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Even Jairus held back his urgent protest to hasten. At that moment there was a disturbance in the crowd, and a trembling woman came up to Jesus. "I touched you, Rabbi," she confessed tearfully. Jesus said to her kindly, "Why did you do it?" "Rabbi, I have been sick for twelve years. I have spent all my money on doctors and I am worse than ever." "Why did you touch me?" asked Jesus.
They pressed through the front door into an empty room. "Where have they gone?" The sound of soft weeping came from the next room. Hesitating now, they went nearer so that they could look through a doorway. The men never forgot what they saw. The little girl was standing beside the bed looking up at Jesus. He held her hand in his. Her mother had thrown her arms around Jairus and was weeping.
Just such might the little daughter of Jairus have looked when the Lord took her by the hand ere she arose! Thus feeling, and thus seeming to see on the lips of the girl a doubtful tinge of the light of life, it was no wonder that Peter could not entertain the thought of her immediate burial. They must at least wait some sign, some unmistakable proof even, of change begun!
As he hastened anxiously to the shore of the lake on the last morning, he said sadly to himself, "If the Rabbi does not come today, I shall never see my child alive again." Near the lake he caught sight of a crowd of people on the shore and broke into a run. Jesus had just stepped out of the boat. Jairus pushed into the crowd, thinking only of his dying daughter.
I. First, then, the word of cheer which sustains a staggering faith. 'When Jesus heard this, He said unto him, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. How preposterous this rekindling of hope must have seemed to Jairus when the storm had blown out the last flickering spark! How irrelevant, if it were not cruel, the 'Fear not! must have sounded when the last possible blow had fallen.
And, behold, there came a man whose name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and falling at the feet of Jesus, he entreated him to come to his house; for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying: and as he was going, the multitude thronged him.
If our Lord was at the feast when this interruption took place, His gracious, immediate answer becomes more lovely, as a sign of His willingness to bring the swiftest help. 'While they are yet speaking, I will hear. Jairus had not finished asking before Jesus was on His feet to go.
It will suffice for my present object to say that the sisters must surely have known that he raised up the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain; and if the words he had just spoken, 'Thy brother shall rise again, seemed to Martha too good to be true in the sense that he was going to raise him now, both she and Mary believing he could raise him if he would, might at least have known that if he did not, it must be for reasons as lovely as any for which he might have done it.
It is that of the woman who came behind Jesus in the crowd; and involves peculiar difficulties, in connection with the facts which render its classification uncertain. At Capernaum, apparently, our Lord was upon his way with Jairus to visit his daughter, accompanied by a crowd of people who had heard the request of the ruler of the synagogue.
Pitiful Christ, visit not my wickedness on me or on others, and O Thou that didst raise the daughter of Jairus, save my sweet Barbara and comfort the heart of poor Thomas. I will have faith. I will have faith." He thrust his hat upon his head, pulling it down over his ears because of the rough wind, and walked forward quite jauntily for a few yards. "What a comfort these new boots are," he said.
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